On the picket line

Labor shortage in Wash. apple groves caused by low wages

Apple growing is big business in Washington state, bringing in a whopping $1.5 billion yearly. But this year a labor shortage was so extreme that one grower agreed to pay $22 an hour for prison labor. After Department of Corrections expenses for guards, transportation and housing, the prison workers will be paid the minimum wage of $8.67. (Seattle Times, Oct. 31) But when 50 members of the United Farm Workers showed up for a job reportedly paying $13 an hour, they were told a different story. They would only be allowed to pick one bin, which paid $22. But it takes the average picker about three hours to pick one bin, which comes to $7.33 an hour, or less than the minimum wage. UFW Regional Director Jorge Valenzuela told the Yakima Herald-Republic that wages have declined over the past five years from about $30 a bin. “Every year it has gone lower for us farm workers.” (Nov. 4) No wonder he objected that the state, instead of supporting the right of farm workers to earn a decent wage, was making prison labor available.

Verizon workers march to Occupy D.C.
to end ‘corporate greed’

Even though the Communication Workers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers agreed to end their strike against Verizon on Aug. 20, the 45,000 workers are finding creative ways to link up their struggle for a decent contract with the Occupy movement sweeping the country. On Nov. 16, CWA members began a two-day march from a Verizon store in Silver Springs, Md., heading for Occupy DC in the capital city’s McPherson Square the next day. The march is part of CWA’s national week of action “to focus attention on Verizon’s attempt to cut good jobs and workers’ benefits while posting record profits and avoiding its fair share of federal taxes.” Along the route the marchers held rallies and performed street theater exposing Verizon’s corporate greed. At Occupy DC, they joined many other unions and occupiers who marched on the Key Bridge. That action was part of the AFL-CIO’s national call to create jobs by rebuilding the country’s sagging infrastructure. (Union City, Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO, News online newsletter, Nov. 18)

Union sues NYC over school staff layoffs

District 37, part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, sued New York City’s Department of Education on Nov. 16. The union claims that the layoffs of 672 school aides, parent coordinators and other support staff “were unnecessary and discriminatory because of their disproportionate impact on schools that serve poor students.” The workers, who are among the city’s lowest paid, were laid off on Oct. 7 “in a move that union leaders have described as political payback for their refusal to let the city tap a health care fund run by labor groups to close the budget gap last spring.” The lawsuit brought by eight laid-off plaintiffs, all of them Black or Latina women, pointed out that there were no layoffs of aides in schools on Staten Island, few in wealthy areas like the Upper East Side or TriBeCa, while 17 aides lost jobs in the very poor Brownsville area of Brooklyn and 46 were let go in two very poor districts in the South Bronx. (New York Times, Nov. 16)

NYC school bus drivers’ union fends off mayor’s attack

In a move calculated to arouse fear and hostility toward New York City’s unionized school bus drivers, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement Nov. 18 calling for alternative plans in case the drivers strike. (New York Times, Nov. 19) Amalgamated Transportation Local 1181 President Michael Cordiello countered Bloomberg with a statement Nov. 19 exposing the mayor’s change in policy that would eliminate “experienced, well-trained [union-organized] employees in favor of companies who are simply seeking to provide bare-bones service at the lowest possible cost.” Cordiello called this “a risky, ill-conceived public policy that directly threatens the safety and security of our children. … When it comes to school children the Mayor should be more concerned about safety, not just cutting costs.” The community group Parents to Improve School Transportation, which demands safe, on-time bus service for all children who must ride school buses, stands by the unionized drivers, who include members of Teamsters Local 854.

32BJ wins raises for D.C. area janitors

Less than 24 hours before their contract was set to expire on Oct. 30, District of Columbia area commercial office cleaners won an agreement with a wage increase. The contract negotiated by Service Employees 32BJ covers 5,000 janitors in D.C. proper, 4,000 cleaners in nearby Virginia, 1,500 workers in nearby Maryland, and more than 700 janitors in Baltimore. Valerie Long, 32BJ vice president, called this “an important victory for cleaners” that is part of the union’s campaign for good jobs on the East Coast. (Justice for Janitors, Nov. 2)